TUNBRIDGE – Gov. Peter Shumlin stood before the microphone at the first debate of the general election campaign and declared, "In this election, there's a choice. There's never been a more clear choice."

Sitting behind the two-term Democratic incumbent inside a gazebo at the Tunbridge World's Fair were three people who hope Vermonters will choose them instead. One by one, they took turns criticizing pieces of Shumlin's two terms in office as WDEV radio talk show host Mark Johnson posed questions. Shumlin, in turn, dismissed his opponents as either having bad ideas or no ideas, as he defended his work.

About 80 people sat, stood and milled around the gazebo, just past the cattle, oxen and swine barns, with the smell of fried onions wafting through the air and a loudspeaker blaring upcoming fair events in the background. The fairgrounds were teeming with potential voters the candidates would seek to meet afterward.

"The No. 1 issue in this campaign is out-of-control property taxes," said Republican Scott Milne of North Pomfret, who called for a two-year cap on the property tax rate while reconsidering the education spending system.

Emily Peyton, an independent from Putney who was not initially invited to the debate, argued that the 1 percent wealthiest are dominating state policy. Both Peyton and Feliciano lost to Milne in the Republican primary, but they remain on the November general election ballot under independent party labels.

Shumlin spent no time discussing Peyton's ideas, but turned a torch on the other two.

"Scott Milne has not given us one single plan about what he's going to do," Shumlin said. "He's only willing to criticize the hard work we've been doing."

"I've got plenty of great ideas," Milne responded later, noting the cap on property tax rates as one he'll be discussing further in the coming weeks.

Single payer in spotlight

Milne, president of Milne Travel, had criticized the governor for being unwilling to reveal how he will propose paying for universal, government-financed health care, which Shumlin has described as his top goal if he is re-elected. Shumlin said he'll have a plan ready in January, two months after the election.

"We've been waiting for four years to hear how much it's going to cost, how it's going to work or who's going to pay for it. We haven't seen it. I'm very skeptical that it's going to work," Milne said.

Shumlin argued that Feliciano would force the elderly, sick and disabled to pay higher health care costs with his proposal to pull the plug on Vermont's troubled health-insurance exchange and switch to the federal exchange, which offers fewer subsidies to the low-income and disabled. He managed to hit both opponents with his criticism. "At least Dan has ideas," Shumlin said. "They might be out of the mainstream of many Vermonters."

Feliciano, too, took at shot at both Shumlin and Milne. "I'm wondering right now what's going to come first, Scott Milne's platform or the health-care budget finance report," he said.